Collars & Keeping: Runaway
by Higuchimon
Summary: Yuuri's favorite pet has run away and he's looking to bring Shun back. Shun, meanwhile, is lost in a place with no friends, tentative allies that may or may not be able to help him, no deck, and no way home. [complete]
1. Chapter 1

**Story Title:** Runaway  
 **Characters:** Yuuri, Shun, Asuka|| **Pairing:** N/A  
 **Chapter Word Count:** 2,558|| **Story Word Count:** 2,558|| **Chapter Count:** 1/8  
 **Genre:** Drama, Friendship|| **Rated:** PG  
 **Challenge:** Diversity Writing Challenge J4, 7-15 chapters; Advent 2015, day #1, write about time getting away from someone; Easter Egg Basket Advent 2016, day #12, pair up 2 characters not seen together in the franchise  & give them a common task (Asuka & Shun); Chapter Set Boot Camp, #9, 8 chapters; Endurance Challenge (updated once a week)  
 **Notes:** For the purposes of this story: the Fusion invasion into XYZ took place roughly six months earlier. Asuka hasn't yet defected from Academia, but is deeply troubled about what it's doing. Some of the high-ranking Academia warriors have been given the right to take one captive each instead of carding them. Yuuri took advantage of that right after capturing Ruri.  
 **Summary:** Yuuri's favorite pet has run away and he's looking to bring Shun back. Shun, meanwhile, is lost in a place with no friends, tentative allies that may or may not be able to help him, no deck, and no way home.

* * *

They appeared all over Academia, hung up on columns and trees, with extra notices being put out on the inter-school communications system. Most people took a look at it, checked their immediate area, and then quietly found other things to do with their time. A few even dared to mentally wish the focus of the notices the best of luck. They wouldn't have dared to say it out loud, of course. Not with Yuuri involved.

Yuuri carefully taped another flier onto one of the columns and stepped back to make sure it wasn't going to blow away on an errant wind. Everything looked fine as it was.

The flier itself was a marvel of work, even if he did say so himself. He'd picked a rather good set of pictures of his pet to put there, gathered from the weeks of video surveillance footage from his personal quarters.

He'd never been bothered by the idea of being surveyed there. He didn't do anything that the Professor would disapprove of, and if he wanted privacy, he knew how to get it.

But here was the image: several images of Kurosaki Shun, full-length and head shots, with that annoying expression of defiance that he would probably be wearing now that he though he'd escaped. Underneath Yuuri detailed out the important information.

 **I am looking for my missing pet, who ran away after curfew last night. Do not approach; he can be very vicious and considers all of Academia his enemy. If sighted, alert me at once with his location, without him being aware that he's been seen.**

Kurosaki could be very wily when he put his mind to it, and if he had any idea how close Yuuri could be to him, then he would run away again.

 _I put too much effort into training him for him to do this to me. I thought he'd learned his place._

Well, clearly he would have to put more effort into teaching Kurosaki how a proper pet behaved around their master. He'd been generous enough to spare the former resistance member in the first place, and this was how he was repaid?

Yuuri calmed himself and checked out the rest of the flier, wanting to make certain once more that he'd provided the proper information.

 **He may search for a way to another world. Those who have dimensional transport access should especially be on their guard. Again, alert me if he is seen. Anyone who returns my property to me will be rewarded. Anyone who attempts to hide him from me will be carded.**

Yuuri nodded to himself. Yes, this would do the job. He didn't need to sign it; everyone in Academia knew that he'd taken advantage of his privileges and claimed a slave from their invasion of XYZ. Part of Kurosaki's training involved being around Fusion duelists and not trying to grab for their throats.

They were still working on that part. Yuuri didn't especially care if he killed some of the others or not, but he much preferred it if Kurosaki did so at _his_ command instead of random attacks.

From the moment that he'd first seen Kurosaki Shun fighting against Obelisk Force and very handily shredding their life points down to nothing, Yuuri wanted him. Dueling him would be magnificent, of course, and would be one more step on Yuuri's ultimate goal to be the strongest duelist who ever existed.

Carding him would have been a waste of potential. It would happen one day; Yuuri wouldn't be surprised at all. If it didn't, that would only be because he chose otherwise, because he had better uses for Kurosaki than being a piece of cardboard.

Finding out that Kurosaki was friends with his XYZ counterpart _and_ brother to that girl that he'd captured for the Professor just put another couple of pieces on the scale for doing something _worse_ than carding him.

So he'd taken what he wanted.

And now Kurosaki thought he could get away. Yuuri wouldn't allow that. Nearly four months of training would not be thrown away like that.

 _I'll have someone watch out around where his sister is kept. He'll probably try to go there._ It was one place, at least, to check into. He didn't doubt that Kurosaki would be there sooner or later. The question remained on how long he would take to head that way.

Satisfied for the moment – he wouldn't be absolutely satisfied until he had his pet back where he belonged – he headed down the corridor, stopping every now and then to put up another flier. The whole time he kept his ears open, even if it looked as if he didn't.

If he were Kurosaki, he'd shadow his captor as much as possible, on the assumption that would be the last place anyone would think to look for him. Not to mention that he would also seek for a way to make whoever dared to take _him_ captive pay for it in the most humiliating ways he could think of.

He didn't hear anything as much as a quiet footfall, but he did hear some of the others around him whispering about his fliers.

"I didn't think anyone _could_ escape Yuuri-sama."

"Neither did I. I kind of hope I don't see him. If he can get away from _Yuuri-sama_...and you know what he was like before Yuuri-sama captured him anyway." The tones spoken in were a mixture of personal concern and fear. Kurosaki did have something of a reputation, given how many of Academia's soldiers he'd defeated before Yuuri brought him down.

Now Yuuri smiled to himself. He suspected there were those in Academia's ranks who didn't entirely approve of the invasion into XYZ and this would ensure that anyone who _might_ have thought about giving Kurosaki any kind of help wouldn't do so.

 _And that's all his own fault. If he hadn't been so eager to get rid of all of us, he might've found an ally or two here. He could even make his way back home._

Of course, Yuuri would take him back if he did anyway. Yuuri didn't give up what was his under any circumstances. But if Kurosaki did find his way back to his own world, then Yuuri reaching out his hand to pluck him back would go a long way towards putting the finishing touches on his pet's training.

No one escaped Yuuri. Not _ever_.

* * *

Asuka took one of the fliers down. She wasn't the only one; a lot of people wanted to look at them more closely, even though the same information had been put up in digital form. She suspected the whole 'please help find my missing pet' fliers thing was just one of Yuuri's sick games.

He played those too much, and she wasn't going to let him come out on top on this one if she had the chance.

She read it over as she walked down the corridor. Again, she wasn't the only one.

Right now, blending in was her main goal. If she did anything too much out of step, it could get the kind of attention she didn't want.

Nor would her unexpected guest want it.

The more she looked at the pictures on the flier and the more she thought about who awaited her in her room, the more she wanted to go find Yuuri and do something painful to him. How could someone presumably human do that to another human being?

The pictures reflected the image of someone who'd been fed well and housed in comfortable surroundings. They also displayed a leather collar around the young man's neck, with a flowery design burned into the leather. Some of them also showed his arms, also bound by leather cuffs with that same design there.

Yuuri's design. Yuuri's mark of ownership.

There were traces of lost sleep under Kurosaki's Shun's eyes in the pictures, and hints of strain that told far more than any words ever would have about what he'd suffered during his months with Yuuri.

He hadn't told her much. She didn't doubt at all that he would prefer not to think about what happened.

 _I have to get him back to the XYZ dimension._ She knew doing so would make her turning against Academia and the Professor an absolute, but try as she might, she couldn't see any other action that she could take.

 _Turning people into cards is bad enough, no matter what the Professor says._ Rumor had it that he had an ulterior motive, something far beyond just taking over the four dimensions for the glory of their own. No one could guess on what it was, though theories and wild ideas ran wild.

Asuka didn't care, not anymore. She'd imagined a battle of good against evil when the first hints of what would happen came to her, a clash of those who didn't know better against the all-wise Academia.

It wasn't like that. Not at all.

She glanced from one side to the other before turning toward the corridors that led to her personal quarters. As one of the highest ranking of Academia's students, only a breath or two away from graduation herself, she had a private set of rooms, which came in very handy right now.

Asuka still didn't make any moves that would get attention as she headed there. Why should she worry over attention? _She_ wasn't doing anything wrong. She was just going to her room after a long day of classes and dueling. She would probably just order in dinner. It wouldn't be the first time she'd done so.

Meals provided here were more than enough for two people at any given time anyway. Warriors had to be fed properly, or so their teachers kept telling them.

Her door was locked, just as she'd left it, and once she entered, she locked it again. She liked her privacy, Asuka did.

As soon as the door locked, she slipped a card from a hidden spot into a slot equally as hidden and waited until a small blue light lit up, where only she could see it from where she stood. Then she stepped forward.

"I'm back."

There wasn't any reply. She didn't expect there to be. Instead, she moved over to the center of the room where her favorite comfortable chair awaited her, and settled into it, tossing the flier down on the glass-covered table in front of her.

"He's putting those up all over, and he's made an announcement on the school dashboard. There's probably not that many students or teachers who won't know that you escaped him."

Still no reply, but a young man's hand picked up the flier, and Kurosaki Shun read it over, his lip curling before he finally spoke.

"Do you know how to get me out of here yet?"

Asuka considered before she answered. "I'm still certain I'm right. We'd need one of the duel disks that have dimensional access, and those all belong to the invasion force. I'm sure Yuuri has one too."

Shun's lips thinned. "He does. I've seen it."

And he hadn't been in a position to take it when he had. Probably he'd done so when he'd first been captured. Asuka didn't press in that direction.

"I think I know someone who _can_ help, though," she mused. One of her friends hadn't quite been the same since going to the XYZ dimension. If Asuka's thoughts on why were close to the truth…

She could feel Shun's sharp gaze on her and looked up toward him. "I won't talk to her here." If she turned out to be wrong, she didn't want to put Shun at risk. And if she were right, then they could come back here afterward.

The XYZ duelist only nodded, his gaze returning to the flier before he roughly tore it to pieces. Lamplight caught on the collar still fastened around his neck as he did.

 _I wish I could get that off of him._ Like in so many things, Yuuri planned for even the potential removal of what branded Shun as his. Taking it off was far riskier than leaving it on right now.

Once they were in XYZ, _then_ they could remove it. But not until then.

Picking her PDA up, she tapped out a quick message requesting dinner before she sent another message to her friend, asking if they could talk tomorrow.

 _With the way Yuuri's looking, better to get him out of here as soon as possible._

Shun didn't sit and relax. He hadn't relaxed while anyone else was around – and probably not when they weren't – since they'd crossed paths. Maybe not even before then. Yuuri wasn't someone whose presence encouraged relaxation.

His hungry gaze passed over her duel disk, though if he thirsted for battle or revenge she couldn't tell. Or perhaps he just missed his deck. She couldn't imagine going so long without her own.

"Do you know where yours is?" she asked, flicking the tips of her fingers toward where hers rested.

"With him." Shun bit out the words as if tearing them from Yuuri's living flesh. "I want it back."

Of course he did. She didn't know if she could get it for him. Everyone knew the rule: anyone found in Yuuri's quarters without his permission would be subject to carding, if they were lucky.

As many rumors ran rampant about what would happen if they weren't lucky as did about what the Professor's purposes for the war were, if not more so. What people knew was that he had a garden in there. He'd made no secret of his love of plants, mirrored in his nightmare-inducing deck. What no one could agree on was what the garden was actually like.

 _I wonder if he's seen it._ That was something else she wouldn't ask Shun. No matter how much the questions burned, she wasn't going to ask about what that time was like. It was over and done with, if she had anything to say about it, and she'd let the memories fade.

Her PDA beeped and she checked, finding a reply from her friend. A smile flicked at the corners of her mouth.

"I'll meet her tomorrow. If she's willing to help, then we can probably get you back to your dimension tomorrow."

"Not without my deck." Kurosaki Shun refused to back down on that, his eyes burning raptor's gold.

"All right. We'll get it back." The threats were directed only at the people who were _caught_ in Yuuri's quarters without his permission. They wouldn't get caught if they could help it. Even being caught didn't mean they'd drop down dead or worse at that moment. She would have her deck with her. She could and would fight for herself and Shun.

 _I've always wanted to duel him anyway._ Even before she'd realized how twisted of a person Yuuri was, he'd caught her attention from his own win-loss record. Most of his losses occurred during his early days at school. She didn't think any of them had happened recently.

Even if she lost, she might have a chance to get Shun out of there anyway. She'd only be carded, but his fate if recaptured would be so much worse.

She would do her best not to let it happen. Tomorrow would settle so much.

 **To Be Continued**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Word Count:** 2,713|| **Story Word Count:** 5,271|| **Chapter Count:** 2/8

* * *

The longer Kurosaki wasn't where Yuuri wanted him to be, the more Yuuri began to weave plans for how to punish him once he'd been retrieved.

 _I got used to him being here,_ the Fusion duelist mused to himself as he sorted through his deck. He'd done this many times, and over the last few weeks, every time he had, Kurosaki had been right over there where he belonged.

He'd gone to a lot of trouble to get that corner set up for his pet, too. A bed that wasn't entirely comfortable, but wasn't hard as a rock, either – the kinder he was to his pet, he knew quite well the more Kurosaki would hate it; a small tray bolted to the floor – it hadn't always been, but the first tray he'd put there ended up being knocked over during one of Kurosaki's tantrums – where he would put food once he'd been satisfied Kurosaki earned a meal. No deck or duel disk, of course. Those remained locked up safely in Yuuri's personal vault, where no one else could get to them.

He hated to dwell on how annoyed he was that after all of his preparations, Kurosaki still thought he could get away and pay no consequences. Yuuri scooped up his cards, tucked them back into his holder, and stalked toward a door that only he could get through.

Yuuri did so like his privacy.

On the other side, a rich garden spread out in front of him, with all manner of plants in every direction. He didn't think most of them had names, since he'd gone to such lengths to create them himself. Many were variations on plants that did exist, but he preferred to call them just his little friends.

He ran his fingers across one lovely bright gold blossom. This one would be useful in the near future, once he knew where Kurosaki was.

But another on would be even more useful. As much as Yuuri liked the idea that someone would bring his runaway back home to him, he knew Kurosaki _and_ the Academia students far too well. Even if one of them spied him, there wasn't any guarantee that he'd stay where he'd been seen. He needed someone – or something – that could track him anywhere.

Antique Gear Hunting Dog could do it easily enough, but Yuuri hadn't made up his mind that he wanted to do that just yet. Not with _that_ creature.

Not that there was anything wrong with the Antique Gear series itself. He knew very well how to use it.

 _But I want Kurosaki to know that_ _ **I**_ _am coming for him./I Antique Gears could belong to anyone. Predator Plants meant Yuuri was coming for him._

He moved through a few more rows, petting those plants that wished for his attention, and came to where some of his experiments that hadn't yet reached perfection lived.

"There you are," he murmured, reaching up to rub his hand against what passed for a head. It had eyes, a mouth, and a nose, and he suspected those two leaves folded down, one to each side, would be ears once they finished blossoming. Close enough to a head for him.

"I have a job for you, my pretty," and at his words the plant turned toward him.

His plants were not at all like the ordinary ones that grew in ordinary gardens. He'd spent the last few years learning all that he could about how to make very special hybrids and only now was he truly getting the results that he wanted.

He slipped a red scarf out of his jacket pocket and held it out toward the plant's nose. "I want you to find the person who wore this and bring him back to me. If you can't bring him back, then come and take me to where you found him at."

For a few moments, nothing happened. Yuuri hadn't ever tried to do this before and he could not have said with full honesty that it would work at all. Then, one by one, the creature's four feet pulled out of the earth and it stretched, nose sniffing up and down Kurosaki's scarf.

It had been months since he'd actually worn it; Yuuri removed it from him once they'd settled into Yuuri's quarters. It was, after all, a symbol of that pathetic resistance, and in Yuuri's opinion, his possession didn't belong to a resistance at all. But there would be enough scent left on there for his beautiful new creation to track Kurosaki.

Tiny roots trailed from the tracker's feet as it headed out of the garden, Yuuri strolling along behind. He didn't intend to follow it everywhere, since he did have other duties, but it would return sooner or later, with or without Kurosaki in tow.

 _I would have to go clean up a mess of resistance fighters right now._

He could probably have gotten away with not doing so, but he did so enjoy carding people, and Kurosaki could hardly make a proper escape from this dimension anyway, so he'd be able to scoop him back up later, especially with the tracker's assistance. Business did come before pleasure.

Though when it came down to the pleasure of carding resistance members or the pleasure of finding his runaway pet, Yuuri couldn't always decide which was more fun.

At least this way he got to do both of them.

The tracker sniffed for a few moments at Kurosaki's bed, then headed for the door. Yuuri let it out and strolled along afterward. He didn't have much time left before needing to take care of his duties, but he wanted to get an idea of where the tracker would be going.

The tracker cast up and down the corridor for a few moments before choosing a direction. The few people around there gave it a quick, worried look before stepping out of the way. Yuuri smiled, and those few who hadn't gotten far enough moved even more so.

That tended to happen when he smiled and other people saw it. He had no idea of why, but it could be very useful.

He wasn't surprised to find that the trail led outside. He wouldn't have stayed inside if he were trying to get away either, at least not at first. He had little idea of what Kurosaki would know about avoiding pursuit in strange territory. It wasn't something he'd ever cared to know.

But so long as he brought his prey to heel in the end, it wouldn't matter at all.

* * *

Shun could not bring himself to relax. He hadn't truly relaxed since the day he'd stared into mad violet eyes and seen a smile that called up terror even now.

But he had to do so. If he didn't get any rest, he wouldn't be able to stay on his feet long enough to get away altogether and that desire burned quite nearly as bright as his desire to find Ruri.

 _She has to be here, too. And we're both going back home together._

It could put him at risk for not escaping at all. Yuuri would know he wanted to find his sister. But there wasn't any way at all that Shun could find himself in the Fusion dimension and _not_ search until he dropped.

Tenjoin-kun didn't know where she was. That worried him more than he wanted to admit.

 _I know Yuuri told everyone he could that he had me. So why wouldn't whoever took her know about that too?_

He'd used Tenjoin-kun's Academia tablet to search for all announcements of prisoners taken and who by. His blood burned hot when he saw his own name and photo listed there, marked as Yuuri's property.

But no matter how hard he searched, he found nothing at all about Ruri, not even a mention that she'd been captured in the first place.

 _Yuuri knows something about her._ He hadn't _said_ as much, but the way his smile played over his lips when Shun mentioned her, and just sometimes the way he looked at Shun himself, plus chance comments dropped now and then, made it plain that he at least knew about Ruri's existence and relation to Shun. What else he knew, the XYZ duelist couldn't yet work out.

In the long run, he wasn't sure if what Yuuri knew mattered as much as finding out where Ruri was in the first place. It would make his entire lifetime if he could not only escape himself but take her with him. It would make Yuuri furious and after the last handful of months, Shun would do _anything_ to make Yuuri angry, especially if he couldn't be punished for it.

The pain of a punishment didn't bother him in the slightest. After seeing what happened to his home, nothing else could truly get to him. But the idea of Yuuri being so angry because he _couldn't_ punish Shun for it? That thrilled him more than he could put into words.

He stayed out of the front room of Tenjoin-kun's dorm when s he wasn't around. There weren't many who would come there without knocking first, but he still chose not to take any chances. Even if someone saw him and said nothing _then_ , they could carry word later, either to Professor Akaba Leo or Yuuri himself.

Shun wasn't sure which of those he didn't want to know about his escape the most. Both sounded good to him, so he did what he could to make sure they didn't now.

Once he had a way to get out of there, it wouldn't matter. He'd gladly let them know he'd returned home along with Ruri. This time he wouldn't be taken by surprise if Yuuri came after him again. He'd watch out for Ruri, too.

If he could blow up enough of this place so that they couldn't keep the invasion going, then all the better.

He leaned back, eyes flicking over to the window. He couldn't see much from here, and didn't want to move close enough so he had a better view. He hated having to guard his movements like this.

One hand reached up to rub against the collar around his neck. He wanted to get rid of it, but he remembered so clearly what Yuuri told him.

"So long as you wear that, not only does everyone else around here know that you're mine – including you – but I can find you anywhere that you go. So even if you thought you could escape, I'll be there, sooner or later."

 _One reason I shouldn't stay here long._ He would put Tenjoin-kun in danger, and of all the people he knew of here she was the only one who'd tried to lend him a hand.

He'd almost literally run into her when trying to find somewhere he could hide from Yuuri. Even if he would be found sooner or later, he'd take what freedom he could. Maybe he would get someone to take the collar off. He just wanted away from here.

Everyone he saw seemed to know that he was Yuuri's escaped prisoner. The way they looked at him, then some of them looked down toward their tablets said far more than any words would have. So he'd kept on going, wanting some sort of shelter and not knowing where he'd find one.

A small closet provided a temporary place to hide for what he thought was an hour or so. He only stepped out when he heard no more footsteps outside.

He'd taken little more than a dozen steps down the corridor, away from where he'd come from, when he came across a second hallway crossing it, and coming down that hallway was a young woman of about his own age, carrying a few books, with a thoughtful, almost concerned expression.

She glanced up toward him and his first thought had been to wonder how he would escape her when she could call for help from anywhere and he couldn't.

Before he could gather himself up to say or do anything, she threw a look over her shoulder, then gestured to the closet again.

"Quick. Our class just let out and there are more students coming, ones who are aiming to be in Obelisk Force. Get out of sight."

He knew what Obelisk Force meant: trouble. Those were considered the elite of Academia and the sight of a runaway prisoner would bring out hunting dogs and howls of glee at the chance to conduct a hunt on their own grounds.

Back into the closet he went, this time listening even harder. He could hear her measured steps, followed by what sounded like a dozen or more people, all cheerfully chatting amongst themselves.

"When do you think you'll be assigned to go to the XYZ dimension, Tenjoin-kun?" He didn't recognize the one who asked, but he sort of did the one who answered, since she'd just spoken to him.

"I don't know. We'll find out sooner, I suppose."

Shun didn't know her at all well enough to guess at her tones, but he didn't _think_ she sounded excited about it. She made a little more vague conversation, then some sort of excuse, something about calling her brother, and soon enough the noise all died out.

He still didn't move. He wanted to talk to her; why had she helped him? Why not just turn him over to whatever passed for authorities around here?

The door creaked open and she stood out there, eyes flicking to each side more than to him.

"You'll be safe in my dorm," she said, voice pitched so only he could hear her. "I don't think many people will think to look for you in there. It's a rule that the male students aren't allowed in the female dorm and vice versa." A small smile slashed across her lips. "My brother always said that would never stop true love, but no one ever asked him his opinion on it."

Perhaps that was what made him trust her enough to follow her there. The mention of a brother struck to a part of him that whispered of Ruri and called up days before the invasion, when life had been absolutely peaceful and wonderful.

Along the way he learned her name – Tenjoin Asuka – and gave his own. She'd made it clear from the beginning that she didn't approve of what Academia was doing in the slightest. Why she still stayed there, she hadn't said yet, and he didn't want to ask. Figuring out his own problems was more than enough for him to deal with at the moment.

The next day drew inevitably closer moment by moment. Somewhere they'd talk to her friend and he'd be that much closer to getting out of here.

But first Ruri. First his deck and a duel disk. _Then_ he'd go home.

Tenjoin-kun arranged a place for him to sleep, sorting out blankets and a small spare mattress. She didn't explain how she had it, but he suspected that this mysterious brother of hers had something to do with it. It wasn't the best bed he'd ever had, though it was far and away better than some of what he'd had in the resistance.

Though it was also a little softer and better than what he had with Yuuri.

He hated that even when he was trying to run away – to escape! - he could still find things about this place that weren't all that bad. He'd met at least one person that wasn't raw evil or evil in training. The food remained decent.

 _It's just from having been here so long,_ he told himself as he pulled the blankets around his shoulders. _That's all._

He told himself, and he meant it down to the core of his soul, that he didn't at all miss the usual pat on the head Yuuri gave him at the end of the day. If he missed it at all, it was in the sense of having become used to it, not because he actually wanted it.

He would go home. He would find Yuuto. He and Yuuto and Ruri would throw Academia out of their world.

And he would never see Yuuri again.

 **To Be Continued**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Word Count:** 2,516|| **Story Word Count:** 7,787|| **Chapter Count:** 3/8

* * *

Scents. So many scents. Yuuri's little plant pet sniffed around, matching all that it found against the scent The Master wanted it to find. Sometimes it could detect traces and it followed as long as it could. But they never lasted. Always, always the scent became overwhelmed by others, going this way and that, blotting out The Master's prey.

It didn't like that. It existed for one reason, to obey The Master's commands, and all of these other moving scents prevented it from doing its job. The Master would not be happy. It could not stand that thought. Master made it live. Master gave it a command.

Master must be obeyed at any cost.

Master wasn't with it anymore. Master followed along for a while but then had to leave. Master made noises but the searcher didn't understand them. All it knew was that it needed to find that one scent.

So it searched and searched.

The moving scents – large things and small alike – meant little to it beyond being scent-blockers. It wanted to get them out of the way, to clear all of the territory so that only the scent it searched for would remain behind, and that of The Master.

The searcher existed to search and to find what it searched for and to please The Master. If it could not find what The Master wanted, then it would have no purpose. From the moment it lifted its head upward, it understood that.

So focused on finding the scent and tracking it down, it almost didn't notice when that scent asserted itself, having become used to it fading out. Then it paused, sniffed, and tried to work through this.

The searcher didn't have what most people would call a mind. It was, after all, not much more than a very oddly bred plant. It knew how to follow a scent once given one and it knew who The Master was and how to find him when necessary – or at least where to go where the Master would return. But anything that could be complex thought? That wasn't something that could be expected, at least not in this generation.

Perhaps others, if it lived so long as to found a lineage.

The searcher took a careful sniff around the hallways. It had noticed certain differences in the scents of the moving ones, and now it noticed something else: those who bore one scent did not enter this particular hallway.

Except a very special scent: the scent of Master's Prey. There were enough of the Other Scents to block it out to a degree but not as much as when That Scent moved around in the other corridors.

Master's Prey could be easier found like this, it decided, and thus it had made an error. The searcher had nothing that could be called an imagination, but if it had, it would've gleefully imagined The Master's praise once it succeeded in its mission.

But first it would have to succeed. So now it prowled down the corridor, trying to keep hold of the Prey's scent. That wasn't easy; others had passed this way, and time itself had passed, weakening the scent. The tracker did not give up. Giving up wasn't something it could do. Only utter destruction or finding Master's Prey would cause it to cease the search.

This corridor led to others, some of which led outside, some of which led further into the building. The tracker kept to the scent trail, which wasn't as wandering and random as it had been before. Slowly the tracker began to realize that it kept in line with a second trail, one of those that belonged in this place.

The tracker hesitated, doing its best to work through this in whatever fashion possible. Two scents together wasn't something it planned on. Nor had Master indicated this was possible.

Therefore, it dismissed the whole thought and concentrated on the scent of The Prey. Only that mattered for Master and thus only that mattered to the tracker.

In due course the scents led it to an opening. It wasn't an opening _now_ but it had to be one at some point, because the Prey's scent entered and didn't come back out. There wasn't enough of it for the Prey to have emerged.

So the Prey went through here and had either gone to ground or emerged from another exit.

The tracker cast about, searching for any further signs of the Prey. It wasn't very conscious of time, but the longer it searched, the more it became aware that it needed something only given to it before by the hand of the Master. Hunger pangs crawled all through it, and the tips of its leaves began to curl a bit.

It wasn't smart at all but it knew water and it knew that it needed that now. It rested the tip of a leaf-like paw against where the Prey's scent trail ceased, marking it in its own fashion, before sliding off in search of food and water.

Water it could find. Academia had plenty of fountains, inside and outside, and the moving sources of larger scents still avoided it. Moving plants weren't the usual kind of thing around even this place, but if anyone would possess them, it would be Yuuri, and no one wanted to bother what Yuuri claimed as his.

Getting water from the ordinary drinking fountains wasn't really possible for the tracker. But a lovely marble fountain in one of the interior lawns provided a source for it, though there wasn't any sign of what it would've preferred for food.

The water did revive it to an extent, however, and the tracker soon found its way back to where it marked the Prey's location. Master would want to know this, it decided in its low-key way, once determining that neither scent had emerged from there while it had been away.

Still dripping a little after its dip in the fountain, the tracker began to retrace its steps, following along on its own back trail. It wasn't the quickest of methods but it would get it where it was going, sooner or later.

The thought that the Prey could leave while it was gone hadn't crossed what passed for its mind. It had accomplished the task that Master set for it as best that it could and now it wanted to pass the word along.

* * *

Yuuri watched in satisfaction as light enveloped his opponent and yet another XYZ remnant faded away into a card. These weren't his preferred prey by any means. He hadn't found much prey that he did prefer. He wanted a chance to duel his counterpart in this world, just to see if there was anything different about this 'Yuuto's dueling.

Unfortunately, the Professor didn't want him to do that. He'd brought it up when he'd first taken Kurosaki for his own, and the Professor wanted to know what had drawn his attention to this one.

"He's not only the brother of that Ruri girl you wanted, but all the information I gathered said he's 'best friends' with my counterpart there."

Yuuri almost licked his lips at the thought of 'Yuuto' and the others from the other two dimensions. The pull to meet them, to duel them, to learn about them, coursed along his veins like his own blood did. He wanted them more than he could put into words.

The Professor shook his head at that. "Don't go near them. That's an order, Yuuri."

Yuuri didn't really follow orders all that well or all that often. Only when it suited him on some level, such as taking Kurosaki for his own. He hadn't needed to, but he'd wanted to, and it was allowed, so he did it.

"Why?" He turned a very serious gaze onto the Professor. "You've let me do anything else I want." Yuuri didn't card people just for the war effort. He carded people because he enjoyed doing it.

It also helped a certain side project of his. Not everyone he carded made it back to Academia.

But when he wanted to do anything, the Professor had always agreed to it. Finding out there was a stopping point didn't please him at all.

"Don't worry," the Professor told him. He looked as if he were smiling, or trying to. He didn't do a very good job of it. "You'll meet them all eventually. But not just yet. Trust me. This is for the best."

The idea of trusting anyone, even the Professor who gave him free reign to card anyone if he wanted to, almost made Yuuri laugh. He kept the thought to himself now, though.

 _If he knew what I planned to do to him..._ Better to keep things as they were for now. He merely nodded and headed off to begin his amusements with Kurosaki.

Now he gathered up the cards he'd created and tucked them into an inner pocket. Some of them would return to Academia. Some of them would serve a more useful purpose.

He pulled another card out and checked on it. To most eyes it would look like any other card. But he could feel something more in it, the pulse of all the souls that he'd poured into it over the last few months.

 _Super Fusion._

* * *

Someone knocked on the door. Shun's head snapped around, eyes narrowing, before Asuka moved past him to answer it. He hurried out of sight, lips pressed firmly together once he closed the door to her bathroom.

Her dorm reminded him of a small apartment: one outer room, one bedroom, and a bathroom. The outer room could possibly count as two rooms, since it wasn't divided by a proper wall, but a counter, one side of which contained the sofa, table, and the window to the outside, while the other held a small refrigerator, a few cupboards, and a few other appliances. Someone could satisfy their need for food on their own here instead of relying on the Academia kitchens if they so wanted.

That did make staying here a little more convenient. Tenjoin-kun slipped in a few extra provisions and as long as he cooked while she was in the dorm, he didn't have to worry about people wondering why she wanted more meals.

Though he wasn't going to take that as a chance to relax, either. Relaxing wasn't on the agenda.

He leaned his head against the door and could hear faint voices: Tenjoin-kun's and someone else's, one that he didn't even vaguely recognize. That put it as very simple not Yuuri. That in and of itself eased the faint tension that sprang up in his back and shoulders.

But there were plenty of people around here who weren't Yuuri and yet who were still not anyone around that he wanted aware of his presence. That more or less included everyone who wasn't Yuuri himself, or Tenjoin-kun.

The other voice faded away as the door closed, and he let himself relax that one bit more.

"It's all right," Tenjoin-kun murmured, and he heard a small sound as of something being set down on a table. Carefully he peeked out, not leaving until he only saw her shadow there. Even then, he moved with absolute caution, giving himself a larger view of the room until he could reassure himself she was the only other person in there.

On the table there now rested a covered tray, from which the most delicious aromas arose. His stomach gurgled in anticipation; at least here he knew that he wouldn't have to do anything to share in the food. Tenjoin-kun wasn't like Yuuri.

The first time he'd shared food with her, he'd hesitated out of the habits of months. She hadn't noticed anything wrong at first, but when she saw he wasn't reaching for anything, she'd wanted to know what the problem was right away.

Shun's lips sealed together almost at once and he looked away from her as she asked. He looked back only to start to reach for the food, steeling himself without being aware of it for some kind of reprimand.

Yuuri's lessons had been very, very thorough. Shun managed to fumble down some food, enough to satisfy himself, and the more he ate, the better he could feel about himself. It was almost the opposite of when he'd been with Yuuri, where the words torn harshly from his lips, submitted to only because he _needed_ to eat, broke down his inner walls with each passing day.

He still hadn't told her what Yuuri did. But from the way she looked, the compassion in her eyes, he thought that she had an idea anyway.

It wasn't until they were in the middle of this meal that she said anything else.

"There was some kind of a weird plant thing wandering around the hallways. It came down here and then it left again." She looked up to catch his attention. "Around here, plants that do things they're not supposed to only means one person."

Shun put down the slice of bread in his hand. His appetite dried up at once.

"Yuuri." His lips and voice weren't trained enough to add the honorific Yuuri wanted after it but he could feel it ghosting on them anyway. _Yuuri-sama._

She nodded, eyes serious. "I don't think we need to panic. We don't know what that plant was there for." She shook her head. "But I don't think it's a good idea to stay here that much longer."

"We should go out there when we do," Shun decided, jerking his head toward the window. "If it was there, I don't want to go that way." That made basic sense to him. She nodded as well.

"I know a few other places we can hide until we meet my friend tomorrow."

"What about your classes?" Shun didn't care about them so much for themselves, but he didn't want her to get into any trouble that would interfere in his search or his escape.

She shrugged. "I can miss a few if I have a reasonable excuse. But that shouldn't be a problem anyway. Tomorrow starts the weekend."

Oh. Right. Generally school didn't happen on the weekends. He'd almost forgotten since the invasion. The days when he'd spent his time in a desk and listening to some adult drone on about whatever they were paid to drone on about seemed as if they'd happened to someone else.

He managed to finish the bread, though there wasn't a bit of taste to it. He wanted to jump out the window and keep running until he found Ruri or a way home, but that wasn't happening either. Running without thinking would end him up back kneeling at Yuuri's feet.

Asuka tidied up the area and he didn't miss that her gaze kept on going back to the door. So did his, for the same reason: just because they suspected Yuuri wouldn't be back soon didn't mean he couldn't turn up. Better safe than sorry.

Better safe than in chains again.

 **To Be Continued**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Word Count:** 2,514|| **Story Word Count:** 10,301|| **Chapter Count:** 4/8

* * *

Yuuri picked the half-dozen cards he'd just created and cast a critical eye at them all. They weren't great duelists by any means, though some of the less skilled Academia people might've struggled for a turn or two. Compared to _him_ , of course, they were nothing.

At least they could serve a purpose now. He divided the stack in half, tucking three into the pocket he kept cards he turned over to the Professor and taking the other three in one hand. In the other he now held another card from his deck.

Then, with a singsong, "Good-bye!" he tore those three cards into shreds and tossed their remains to the wind.

Super Fusion, he had learned, thrived off the acquisition and consumption of souls. Putting people in cards alone wasn't good enough, though it did make for a nice, clean death.

Yuuri didn't care much about killing people but he _loathed_ having to clean up after himself. Carding made everything so much easier.

He had to strain to feel the power that slept within this strange card, but he could do it. Every time he offered more cards – more souls to it, Super Fusion grew stronger. Keeping it in whatever deck he planned to use helped as well. He'd mastered the art of switching it from one to another without being seen.

But with that taken care of, he checked the time. His little plant pet had had plenty of time to track down Kurosaki, or possibly even someone had seen him and was willing to offer information in exchange for not being carded.

Which meant that since he'd already accomplished his mission in being here, it was time to go back.

He almost didn't want to. He didn't get a chance to scour the XYZ dimension for prey, since his first mission had been to capture that girl the Professor wanted. There would be other targets he had to bring in without harming – much – but until the Professor told him who they were, he had to stick to the occasional mission here to help clean up the leftover trash.

 _I did find Kurosaki, so there are a few pieces of polished quartz around here,_ he mused as he made his way through the rubble-filled streets. Honestly, he still couldn't understand why Kurosaki got so angry with him. He'd given his slave _everything_ : a place to live that wasn't a tent that could blow over in a stiff breeze or a half-destroyed building that could switch to fully destroyed at a moment's notice. Kurosaki had plenty of good food to eat, once he earned it, instead of whatever could be scrounged up from the rubble and shared out with far too many others. He even had decent clothes to wear and those were washed and dried on a regular basis, and didn't include that horrible red scarf.

What in any world did he have to complain about and what had led him to run away?

 _It doesn't matter. I'll just have to train him to accept his good fortune when I get him back._ All pets needed training. Kurosaki apparently more than most.

He didn't bother waiting for the patrol that started out the same time that he had. He'd ditched them within the first five minutes and as far as he knew, they'd all been defeated. Maybe they hadn't been. Maybe he underestimated them.

But he doubted that very much.

* * *

Yuuri's plant hunter crouched outside of the door to the garden. Master would be back soon. Then it would convey what he wanted to know, would take him back to where Master's Prey huddled in terror, and all would be well.

But Master seemed to take forever to get back and the tracker wilted a tiny bit more as time ticked by. Water wasn't enough to sustain it and it couldn't leave the area now, not without risking missing Master's return. That limited intelligence kept it right where it was.

"Well, what are you? Something else of Yuuri's that got out?"

Scents the tracker could recognize. But voices it couldn't, and it had only heard this one once or twice.

Not many people could enter Yuuri's private garden without his permission and this was one of them.

Dennis Macfield reached down to pick up the plant fearlessly, turning to look at it.

"Oh, I see what you are. I bet Yuuri sent you out to find Kurosaki."

The words meant little, save for 'Yuuri'. That, the plant knew, was _Master_ , and it tried to wiggle a bit.

"Got something to tell him?"

Again that meant nothing. What did mean something was that the tracker now could smell the being that held it, and some of that scent was that of the Master. This, then, could be someone sent _by_ the Master. Again it wiggled, harder this time.

Dennis put the tracker back down. "All right, tell me what you can."

The tracker wiggled a little more, then gathered up all of its strength and started along the trail. This one, labeled now as Master's Servant for lack of anything else, would have to do in lieu of Master.

* * *

Dennis followed Yuuri's weird little tracker through the corridors, wondering where it would lead him. He'd seen the posters and notices about Kurosaki's running away. It didn't surprise him at all to see that one of Yuuri's plants apparently had been sent to find him.

And it definitely wanted to tell him something, or to tell Yuuri something, or someone something. So he followed along.

 _Yuuri should be back soon. I hope, anyway. I'd hate to leave without telling him._

Yuuri could be mildly annoyed when he couldn't put his finger on what he considered his, and Dennis counted among those, if only as 'his only actual friend'.

 _I suppose I could've told Kurosaki how possessive Yuuri is. Oh, well._

It offered entertainment of a sort Academia seldom could to keep distant track of Kurosaki's escape. Dennis didn't know where he was, but seeing how upset Yuuri was at someone who wasn't him? That was more than he'd ever bargained for.

But when they came close to the section of Academia's dorms set aside for the female students, Dennis hesitated a fraction.

"Are you sure?" He didn't really expect a proper answer from the creature, but it kept scurrying on, not waiting for him. Dennis shrugged. As long as he didn't go inside one of the dorms, it should be all right.

Yuuri's tracker led him through a couple of corridors and finally stopped outside a door. It flopped over right away and didn't move, nor look as if it would ever move again.

"Oh, man, Yuuri's going to hate it if you died," Dennis groaned before he picked up the tracker and tossed it over his shoulder. "Don't be dead. I'll get you back to him."

He glanced at the door, then checked his PDA cautiously. _Tenjoin Asuka._ He'd seen her duel before. She was amazing, strong and independent in a way that most Academia students weren't. Rumor had it she'd be sent to either XYZ or Synchro soon enough, possibly even heading her own battalion. Other rumors held that Edo Phoenix wanted her for his troops in holding down XYZ. Her options were many.

But if Yuuri's tracker had followed Kurosaki here, then she bid fair to be in some kind of trouble. Either from what Kurosaki might do or from what the Professor might do if treachery lurked in her mind.

Or worse, from what Yuuri might do if she actually sheltered his pet from him.

Well, that much wasn't his problem. He'd just pass the results along and then worry about his own next assignment.

* * *

It wasn't easy to get out without being seen. Once they were out in the hallways again it would be easier, since it was already late enough that only a few people would be there aside from them, and most of those could be intimidated into not following up on Kurosaki walking the halls, especially in the company of a high-ranking Obelisk student.

That still didn't make any of this easier on Shun as they walked. Every step they took made him feel as if he had a huge target drawn on his back and Yuuri would leap down from nowhere to bring him to his knees and take him back into captivity.

 _I'm still a prisoner,_ he reminded himself harshly, refusing to let a single drop of hope touch him. He ran a finger over the collar just to let it sink in even deeper. _I won't be free until this is gone and I'm back in my own world._

That remained the bare minimum for his freedom. He wanted all of Fusion's people out of his dimension and he wanted to know that Yuuri would never approach him or anyone else that he knew ever again. Only then would he truly _feel_ free.

He remained a prisoner, but not everyone around him was a captor or even a guard. More than one person, he saw, looked at him with a hint of recognition, or a quick glance at one of those stupid posters, then hurried along without another word. Whatever their reasons, he didn't care. Even if they sent a message to Yuuri, he would be gone by the time the other got there.

That wasn't hope, he told himself. That was just common sense.

"We're almost there," Asuka murmured, keeping in step with him. They didn't talk much as they moved on through the corridors and to the outside. The less talk, the less chance of anything being overheard, or their voices going where no one wanted them.

Overhead, silver lashes of light slipped between the clouds, brushing the dark grass on the lawn ahead of them. Shun grit his teeth together, reminded far too much of a park where he and Ruri and Yuuto spent time between school when they could.

It didn't exist anymore, burned to ash underneath the crushing attacks of the Fusion dimension warriors.

Even if they could be thrown back, even if all of the people could somehow be brought back – and Shun didn't think they could be – there wasn't any way to revive those who'd died in the attack instead of being turned into cards. Would spring be enough to let them grow crops again? He didn't know anything about how to grow food.

 _Yuuri's good with plants,_ a little traitorous part of himself whispered. _You could learn._

He shook his head with a fierce grind of his teeth. He didn't want to learn _anything_ from Yuuri, no matter what it might be. He'd already learned more than enough.

Asuka glanced toward him, attention probably caught by his sudden movement, and he shook his head again, a little softer this time. He didn't want to say anything about the foul little idea that swarmed through him. It was probably the product of spending too much time around here anyway.

She leaned closer, her quiet voice drifting upward. "We're almost there."

They'd changed the time of the meeting; with the sight of that plant which could only be Yuuri's, it was better to get this done as fast as possible. Shun didn't care about the timing; he would've been perfectly fine going out as soon as Asuka's friend agreed to help them. The longer he stayed here, the more things got under his skin.

Another handful of minutes brought them inside again. Shun checked around, a tiny breath of peace finding its way to him when he saw neither sign of Yuuri or that plant. He hadn't seen it for himself, but he could imagine what something Yuuri would make would be like, and the thought that even a plant could give him away sent chills all through him.

"No one comes over here after dark," Asuka murmured as they moved along. "It's an older part of Academia."

Shun just nodded; he couldn't say that he cared about the history of the place. It offered them a place to talk that wouldn't be likely to be overheard and that was all.

At the end of several long corridors and after going through two or three rooms, to the point that Shun wasn't sure if he could find his own way out if he needed to, Asuka opened a door, slipped inside, waited just long enough for him to get by her, then closed it again. She turned around and looked toward a shadow-darkened corner.

"We're here."

"I can see." The voice wasn't one he recognized, but was tight and worried. The owner only took a single step, enough so that Shun could see she was there and by herself. "Have you checked your PDA tonight?"

Asuka shook her head. "Not since we left. What's wrong?"

"They announced a permanent presence in the XYZ dimension, one that's going to be led by Edo Phoenix once he graduates. He'll be the Commander-in-Chief there." Her hands clenched together.

"What does that mean?" Shun snapped. The young Academia student looked at him.

"It means that the Professor thinks he's almost finished the invasion, which means he can start looking at the other dimensions."

Shun could only hope that those other dimensions would fare better than his own. But his own concerns had to take precedence for now.

"Do you know where Ruri is? Can I get to her?" Once he had his sister, _then_ he would take them both out of there. Maybe to one of those other dimensions. One of them had to be a decent place to take cover until they could sorted out again.

"I don't know." She bit her lip, looking from one of them to the other. "If she's not listed among the taken for the fighters, then there's only one other option I know."

Shun tensed. He hadn't been this close to Ruri since she vanished.

"It's – it's about Yuuri," she said, speaking quick and low. "He's one of the best duelists that Academia has but he wasn't part of the invasion. But I know – everyone knows – that he took a trip to XYZ _after_ the invasion, and before – before he came back with you." Her words tumbled over themselves as she kept on talking. "No one knows what he did there, except maybe one person."

"Who?"

"Dennis Macfield. That's his best friend. There's a rumor that someone saw Dennis talking to some people in XYZ before Yuuri went there, but nothing ever came of it. The Professor turns a very harsh eye on treachery, so if Dennis wasn't accused of it, it would mean it was all right for him to be there."

Shun could put the rest of it together. If it was all right for this 'Dennis' to be there, then it meant that he was probably a spy of some kind. It didn't necessarily follow that this was connected to Ruri, but it did give a vague thread that would lead to Yuuri.

Exactly where he himself didn't want to go.

 **To Be Continued**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Word Count:** 2,637|| **Story Word Count:** 12,938|| **Chapter Count:** 5/8

* * *

"Yuuri!"

It wasn't Dennis's call or cheerful wave that got Yuuri's attention in all honesty. It was the green – starting to turn brown – plant slung over his shoulder. Yuuri didn't even bother with a perfunctory nod, but hurried right over to take it away from Dennis.

"I found it outside your room door," Dennis said. "Did you send it out for Kurosaki?"

"Yes," Yuuri replied without paying much attention. He'd barely made it halfway back to his room before running into his friend – at least he thought Dennis was a friend, he hadn't carded him yet but Dennis was _useful_ , even if he did have XYZ in his deck. At any rate, he paid more attention now to his dear little plant, running his hands over it to see if there was even a spark left there.

"Welllllll," Dennis dragged the word out. "Once you're done with your gardening, maybe you'd like to know what it showed me?"

Yuuri's head snapped around, possessive rage glittering in his deep violet eyes. "What?" The plant remained on its last roots and he thought he could save it. But if information about Kurosaki's whereabouts could be gathered… a difficult decision to make indeed.

"It led me over to the girl's dorms," Dennis said, gesturing vaguely in that direction. "And right to one of the dorms in particular."

Yuuri didn't bother asking which one. The fire in his eyes said it all for him.

"Tenjoin Asuka. I didn't bother knocking. I figured if they saw me out there with that," he gestured now to Yuuri's little plant, "they'd probably run before you could get to them."

Yuuri's eyes narrowed at that. Dennis wasn't wrong there. If Kurosaki knew just how close he could be once Yuuri knew where he was, then he'd never stay still for more than a few minutes. Even that might not save him around Academia, where far more people feared Yuuri than pitied Kurosaki.

"Go back there and keep an eye out for them," Yuuri ordered. "I'm going to take care of this." He patted his tracker. He had a second pair of eyes in Dennis, one superior to the plant and one that could also think more than the plant could. Granted, people knew that Dennis served him nearly as much as he served the Professor.

 _If they saw the tracker and fled because of me, then they'd do the same thing for Dennis. But Dennis can hide easier than it can. He knows why he should hide._

Dennis, thankfully, didn't give him any arguments about it, but wheeled around and headed off casually. Only Yuuri, who knew him so well, would notice the speed of his steps. Given this late hour, there weren't many people around to notice at all.

He made his way down to his quarters, looking over his tracker. It needed more food and water, and probably a bit of rest as well.

 _If I hadn't had to go to XYZ, then it could've found me before it got this bad._ Yuuri cared for his plants more than he cared for anything or anyone else in all the world. In any world. His plants depended on him and the ones who held a measure of sentience or intelligence knew him as the Master. So it was his job to take care of them and make sure they were capable of carrying out the commands he gave them.

 _I rushed too much on this one,_ he decided, spreading it out on his worktable once he'd properly entered his garden. He started to mix the nutrients that would revive the tracker, if it weren't too late. He wanted it to survive, and if it didn't, then this was another point that would be laid to rest at Kurosaki's doorstep.

The more he considered that, the more he decided that he would blame his pet for it even if the tracker _did_ survive.

 _If he didn't run away, I wouldn't have called on it early and it wouldn't be in this condition._

As he worked, he cast his eyes over to the rest of the garden. He would use some of them to punish Kurosaki. He hadn't inflicted them on his pet before, preferring to remain with a firm hand and the withdrawal of food or other punishments to train him. But now he would increase his efforts and his dear plants would show the way.

Some of what he worked on making them do defied what some science said could be done. But Yuuri didn't pay that much attention to science. He decided what he wanted to have happen and worked on _making_ it happen. More often than not, he succeeded. Sometimes he wondered why, especially when there was something that he wanted that he _knew_ plants couldn't do – such as walking around searching for particular people – and yet when he wanted it hardest, they did it anyway.

He let those thoughts tumble around in the back of his mind for now, focusing more of his mind on tending the tracker. Though the thought of Kurosaki's reactions to what he began to work out were pleasurable indeed.

At least for him. And probably for Kurosaki as well. Though he suspected that his pet wouldn't like that it was. And that made him enjoy the plans that much more.

* * *

Dennis strolled along, his steps a bit sprightlier than what most might have been if given an order by Yuuri. There weren't many at Academia who would have the nerve to turn such an order down, but that wasn't how Dennis thought.

He could've told Yuuri that he didn't have the time to track down his pet, or made up any other excuse. Yuuri would probably have been annoyed by it, but if he'd brought up the potential of another mission, he might have let it slide.

But Dennis wanted to see Kurosaki brought back tamely to Yuuri's hand. He'd worried more than once that the XYZ duelist had seen him talking to his sister, and so for now, he'd taken care not to be where Kurosaki could see him.

If Yuuri's pet stayed nicely mewed up here in the Fusion dimension, then when Dennis moved on to his next assignment, he wouldn't have to worry about him spilling the beans to anyone else in either Synchro or Standard.

Not to mention that if Kurosaki ever knew who it was that _set up_ his sister's kidnapping, he'd want to strangle him as much or more than he would the person who'd actually done it.

So far as Dennis knew, Yuuri hadn't told Kurosaki who that was, which meant Dennis himself would keep his mouth shut about it if he ever had occasion to so much as casually chat with Kurosaki. He didn't fear Yuuri at all – well not that much – but secrets were secrets because people didn't tell them.

Now if he knew he could drive Kurosaki up the wall and get away with it...that would be another story altogether.

When only a short distance from Tenjoin-kun's dorm – and quite glad that there wasn't anyone else around now to give him any kind of suspicious looks for being around here – he stopped and listened for any sign of people moving around.

 _Nothing. Good._ He started again, intending to mostly just lurk in the general area and see if the two of them came out, when a quick movement from outside caught his attention.

It wasn't against the rules _entirely_ to be out this late. It was more 'don't get caught' than anything else, especially for those who ranked as highly as Tenjoin Asuka did.

So when Dennis saw two shapes that could only be a young man and a young woman moving quickly and taking care to stick to the darker areas of the outside area, he didn't dismiss them as a couple of young lovers in search of privacy.

* * *

Asuka couldn't bring herself to be that surprised. She'd wondered, as many had, why someone of Yuuri's skills hadn't been included in the original invasion of XYZ, or put in charge of keeping it subdued. That sort of mission was just like him.

At the very least, Yuuri knew more than they'd suspected he had, and that meant the one thing she knew Shun didn't want to do: see him again.

"You don't have to," she said quietly. "I can confront him about it."

Shun shook his head without a moment of hesitation. "This is about _my_ sister. I won't let him keep me. Not this time."

She didn't know Shun very well, but she could tell he believed that. She wasn't sure herself of how possible it was. The stories about Yuuri bordered on legendary.

"You'll have a better chance if you can talk to him where _you_ set it up, not going right to his rooms," her friend suggested. "No one goes there if they can help it."

"I know." Shun bit off the word. "I've been in them." His fingers clenched and unclenched. "I can do this. You two should go."

Asuka folded her arms over her chest. "No. I've come with you this far already and I'm not going to back out now."

Her friend fidgeted more. "You said that you wanted a way to cross dimensions. I can help with that much." She reached into the alcove she'd hidden in before and brought out a duel disk. "I managed to get an extra one. It can take you to any of the other dimensions."

She held it out to Shun. "If I were you, I'd just leave here and never look back."

"I will." Shun's lips twisted up into the most horrendous of expressions, fire burning in his golden eyes. "After I've found Ruri."

Asuka couldn't blame him at all, nor would even if she could have. She'd do the same thing if Fubuki were in trouble like that. Though anyone who'd want to hold him prisoner would likely wind up regretting their life choices very soon.

"Then what do you plan to do?" Asuka wanted to know.

Shun considered for only a few seconds, staring down at the duel disk in his hands. The ache for his deck could be seen in every line of his face.

"No," Asuka interrupted what she knew he had to be thinking. "Don't duel him. No one knows how many duels he's had, but Yuuri's never lost. People are terrified of him because of that. He's vicious. He's cruel. He's everything a duelist should never be."

The side of Shun's mouth twitched a bare fraction. "I lived with him for the last few months. I know exactly what he is. Perhaps more than you do."

Asuka shuddered just at that thought. There were times when she passed Yuuri in the halls or saw a glimpse of him in the dining area and those were enough to send chills down her spine on the rare occasions their eyes met. Few people terrified her. Yuuri headed that list.

"I need to get my deck back. I'm not leaving the Raid Raptors with him." His eyes hardened even more. "And I think the last place he would look for me is in his own rooms."

"Then let's do it like this," Asuka said, considering what she hoped would get what Shun wanted without him ending up back in Yuuri's clutches. "You can sneak into his room and get your deck back. I'll talk to him and see if I can find out anything about Ruri." She pursed her lips, thinking more. "If that plant thing really did belong to him, he'll probably want to know where you are."

Shun started to shake his his head and her friend didn't look any more pleased by it.

"You shouldn't do that," her friend said, reaching one hand out to her. "I'm- I'm going to leave Academia. Everything they're doing is wrong and this isn't an exception. I- would you come with me, please?"

"You should leave with her," Shun interjected. "This place isn't for the likes of you." He looked from one of them to the other. "Either of you."

Asuka raised her head up a bit higher. She'd been thinking much the same thing all this time. But first points came first.

"If you can wait until we've taken care of this business, then I'll go with you." She wanted to see this through to the end, or as close as she could get to it. She refused to leave without knowing Shun and Ruri were on their way to safety.

Shun didn't disagree on that, which probably was as close as he'd get to agreeing. Now it just remained to figure out how she'd find Yuuri and make sure that he wasn't in his rooms when Shun went to get his deck back.

She brought her PDA out and started typing on it. "I'll ask him to meet me near my room."

"And what reason will you give for wanting to know about my sister?" Shun asked with an arch of his eyebrow.

"I won't." A slightly mischievous grin, one that her brother would've been proud of, appeared on her lips. "But don't worry. I'll come back with something useful." She had a pretty good idea already of how she wanted the conversation to go.

* * *

Shun steadied himself, his stomach churning and his heart racing at the thought of going back anywhere near to Yuuri's rooms, whether or not Yuuri was in them. He'd suffered between those walls. There he'd had his clothes taken, his _scarf_ taken, his deck ripped away from him, a collar latched around his neck, forced to do anything that Yuuri wanted just to eat, to do as he was told just to amuse Yuuri.

He'd gotten out of there and under no circumstances did he _want_ to go back.

 _I should've taken it while I was getting out the first time._ He knew why he hadn't: Yuuri had only stepped out for a short trip somewhere – Shun actually didn't know where he'd gone – and he'd known if he didn't hurry, then he wouldn't have made his own escape. Taking the time to get his deck out would've meant he never escaped in the first place.

So now he had to go back to do what he hadn't done the first time and all he could do was hope that Yuuri would be curious enough to go see what Tenjoin-kun wanted.

"Are you sure you'll be able to get into his room without being noticed?" Tenjoin-kun's friend asked, fidgeting with her duel disk, as if she wanted to get out of there as fast as she could.

"Yes." His lips thinned. He didn't think he'd had a proper smile since the moment he'd met Yuuri. One hand reached up to brush the collar latched around his neck. "This will let me in."

He wanted it off of him, yet another mark of Yuuri's ownership, but now it would at least serve a useful purpose. He couldn't get it off entirely until he was in one of the other dimensions.

Or rather, he could but he wouldn't. Yuuri had made it very plain.

"Take off this collar and it will let out a signal that informs any Fusion base nearby that my personal slave has escaped and removed his collar. They won't stop until they find you and return you to me, and I will be _very upset with you."_

But Shun had already made his mind up on that point. Once he was in one of the other dimensions, he'd take it off, drop it somewhere, and then hop to another one. No one could track him then. He'd finally be free of Yuuri.

And this was the true beginning of his freedom.

 **To Be Continued**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Word Count:** 2,671|| **Story Word Count:** 15,069|| **Chapter Count:** 6/8

* * *

Yuuri bent over his poor plant, watching for the slightest hint of life. So far as he could judge, there still remained a chance, but not a very good one. The nutrient bath helped a great deal, but there just wasn't any sign of it getting _better_.

There would definitely be an extra punishment to his pet for putting his dear tracker through this ordeal.

"Yuuri, you're beeping."

Yuuri slowly turned to look at Dennis, frowning. He didn't like frowning, but what else was he to do right now? His pet having run away, his tracking plant on the brink of death, and now this?

"What are you doing back here? You're supposed to be watching Kurosaki and Tenjoin." If his pet managed to get away because of Dennis's carelessness, Yuuri would _never_ forgive him.

Dennis waved his gloved hand. "I was. I couldn't get close enough to hear everything but I could see when they left again. It looked like they were heading this way again." He made a face of his own. "I couldn't get too close because they would've seen me then."

Yuuri's eyes narrowed. Heading this way wasn't a good thing, since Kurosaki wasn't an idiot in the slightest – except where he kept wanting to think he could get away from Yuuri.

 _They must have a plan._ But what plan would require either or both of them getting this close to his room? Surely Kurosaki wasn't going to surrender, even if it would be the smartest thing for him to do.

Then what else Dennis said clicked in his mind and he pulled his Academia PDA out. He did indeed have a message.

From Tenjoin Asuka.

Well.

He read it carefully, once, twice, and again, then looked at Dennis, one eyebrow creeping upward. "Did you find out anything at all useful?"

"They met up with someone, and whoever it was gave Kurosaki what I think was a duel disk. Too dark to really be sure, though." Dennis shrugged casually. "Whoever they met went in a different direction from them, though. Heading away from Academia it looked like."

Yuuri nodded, hands slipping over the PDA controls as he sent a quick message out. Their little friend wouldn't get very far. If they had useful information, they might last a while longer, but otherwise…

One more card could only help the Professor's plans.

Once taken care of, Yuuri gave Dennis a very careful look, his lips curving into a quick, harsh smile. "I need you to go on another mission for me, Dennis. And this time, don't come back until you're all the way done."

Dennis lounged against the garden wall. "So what's this one going to be? I don't have a whole lot of time to help you, Yuuri."

It wasn't often Dennis showed him anything that resembled a backbone when it came to Yuuri's orders. Yuuri approved, even when it got to be a little annoying. Now wasn't the time to show defiance.

But he flipped his PDA around and showed Dennis the message from Tenjoin.

"I want you to answer my mail for me."

* * *

It wasn't a good plan. Asuka could already think of at least four or five things that could go wrong with it, especially since it hinged very much on Yuuri doing exactly what they wanted him to do and not dismissing her message out of hand or planning his own trap for them.

 _If he's in his room, this should at least get him out of it. We can watch to make sure of that._ That didn't make their plan any better, but they'd at least know if he left his room.

A quick in and out; that was Shun's part of things. He would get his deck and be gone again, leaving no other trace of his return to his prison. It could even take hours, if not days, before Yuuri realized it was gone, depending on what happened during her meeting with him.

The chance of getting herself carded wasn't far from her mind, either. Yuuri could not be trusted at all, which meant he could tell her anything that he wanted, answer any of her questions, and then decide to card her because that was what he did with people.

No one ever knew if he'd carded anyone who was on Academia's side, but there were always rumors. No one wanted to go on a mission with him. The few who had never returned. _Supposedly_ it was all because they went off and got themselves carded by Resistance members. But no one knew for sure except perhaps Yuuri.

Her friend had already left. There wasn't much of anything else that she could do right now, but she'd promised to wait until Asuka completed this before leaving so they could go together.

And go Asuka very much wanted to do. Shun still hadn't revealed much about his time with Yuuri but the few things he _had_ mentioned told her this wasn't at all where she wanted to spend the rest of her days.

Now she and Shun worked their way closer to Yuuri's quarters, doing their best to give the impression they had every right to be where they were.

 _I think this is more dangerous for me than him. People would expect him around here, even without Yuuri._ But she wasn't technically allowed in the side of the male dorms, no more than the male students were allowed in the female side.

No one had asked any questions. For the most part, that was because no one was there _to_ ask them. It still wasn't late to the point where no one should've been around, but no one was around, and that made her much more nervous than she wanted at the moment.

Finally they both stopped. Yuuri's quarters were right at the end of the hallway. They said nothing; they were too close to risk anyone overhearing them. But Shun stepped into an alcove deep enough to hide him, then Asuka kept on walking, going on until she reached another corridor and heading down that way. They wanted enough distance between where she met Yuuri and his own set of rooms so that he wouldn't realize Shun's presence too soon.

Aside from the dorm rooms, there were areas that could be accessed by any student at any time of day or night. Asuka settled herself into one of those, a sort of waiting room, a widened out area of the hall with three cushioned chairs and a sofa, a broad window looking out on the campus grounds, with a glimpse of the ocean during the day or under strong moonlight.

Here she waited for Yuuri and unlike most people who expected to meet him, she looked forward to it.

* * *

Shun leaned against the wall of the alcove and waited. It took him some effort to keep his breathing under control and he struggled to maintain that effort, trying not to think too hard about how close he was to the place he'd fought to escape: and that he was going back into.

 _I'm not going to stay there._

He had to keep reminding himself of that fact. If he let it slip out of his awareness for more than a few moments, he suspected he'd never be able to actually move from here.

A door opened. From where he stood, it could only be Yuuri's door. Shun kept himself even more still, trying to convince himself and his heart rate that he wasn't a person at all, that he was nothing more than a part of the furniture and the furniture had no need to worry. Nothing was going to happen to the furniture.

Footsteps sounded, heading down the way that Tenjoin-kun awaited. Shun didn't listen very closely, just enough so that he knew they passed. He tilted his head a tiny fraction and caught a glimpse of a coat-tail vanishing out of sight. It didn't entirely look like what he remembered Yuuri wearing, but he couldn't get a very good look at whoever it was anyway.

 _It was Yuuri's door. It's Yuuri._

No one else would be leaving from Yuuri's room at this hour. If it were a different time of day then he would suspect Dennis. He didn't like Macfield in the slightest, not with how close he and Yuuri were. But at this time of evening, it wasn't likely that Dennis would be coming _out_ of Yuuri's quarters.

Shun shoved all thoughts in _that_ direction out of his mind as hard as he could and focused on what actually mattered: Yuuri wasn't in his room, which meant that the path was clear and he could get to his deck.

He waited another few minutes, until he couldn't hold himself back for another moment. Moving with all due speed, he hurried over to the door and rested one hand on the panel outside that would allow entrance. Academia took security on the dorm rooms fairly seriously and only those authorized could get in or out of a room.

Yuuri authorized him once bringing him here, with the collar serving to confirm his position as Yuuri's personal toy. Both of those helped with his escape, and would now help one more time.

The door slid open, a faint hiss that only someone listening for it might've heard, and he hurried inside, his heart lodged firmly in his throat.

Nothing had changed from when he'd escaped, everything too quiet and still.

 _The vault._ He remembered clearly seeing Yuuri set the deck in there and lock it up tight. Now he moved that way, taking care not to make any more sound than he had to. He believed the rooms were empty but he couldn't bring himself to do otherwise.

With every step, memories he'd tried to push out of sight rose up in the back of his mind.

 _His hands cuffed behind his back, with a length of chain running from them around front so Yuuri could pull him along, he'd been brought in here after days of being locked up in a bare, featureless cell._

 _He hadn't eaten in all that time and only been offered enough water so he wouldn't dry up. He'd tried to ignore the water, until his thirst burned so much that he couldn't._

 _Yuuri brought it to him, of course. Worse, he'd been_ _ **kind**_ _about it. He ran his fingers through Shun's hair and stared at him with a smile that rang far too much of Yuuto's and yet wasn't anything like his at all._

 _"This is for you. I know you want it," Yuuri murmured, bringing the bottle of water to Shun's lips. He only allowed a few sips, enough so he wasn't in pain._

 _His head throbbed and he didn't know if it was because of lack of food or lack of proper sleep or being chained up the way he was. He wanted to fight, to knock Yuuri down and get back to his own world, but all he could bring himself to do was follow along._

 _"You're not going to need_ _ **those**_ _clothes anymore," Yuuri told him, his violet eyes dark with distaste as he examined Shun's tattered and dirty clothes. "I have better clothes for you. Get out of those rags."_

 _He'd tried to resist. He'd managed to do so only for a few minutes before Yuuri stopped waiting for him to obey and tore the clothes to shreds himself. All that survived was the scarf, and only because he grabbed it and pulled it close._

 _Yuuri smiled the most hideous of smiles at that. "So you want that left alone? Then understand this: I'll put it somewhere safe. You'll clean up and you'll wear what I tell you to wear, and I won't burn it in front of you. Is that understood, my pet?"_

 _That was the first time Shun heard those horrible words directed at him. He'd lurched toward Yuuri, fist raised, only for the other to easily dodge, grab him by the wrist, and bring him down to his knees._

 _"One more chance. Disobey me again and you'll be the one who burns your own scarf." That smile would've terrified anyone, let alone Shun. "Understood?"_

 _Shun hated it. Shun did not dare believe Yuuri wouldn't carry out the threat. He didn't know how he could be forced to burn what was so precious to him, but he didn't want to find out by it happening._

 _"Yes," he said, the word sticking hard in his throat. Yuuri tilted his head up with the tips of his fingers._

 _"What you need to say is 'yes, master'." Yuuri waited, anticipating Shun's reply. Shun ached to pull away but it was as if invisible bonds wrapped around his body, keeping him trapped until Yuuri permitted otherwise. His head drooped._

 _"Yes, master." He swore the day would come when he would be free again, and he'd never call Yuuri anything but the cruel bastard that he was._

 _Yuuri smiled at him, hand roaming over his head in a petting motion. "Good boy."_

 _For the first time in his life, Shun could feel a wave of warmth and pleasure all through him when he heard Yuuri say that. He_ _ **liked**_ _being praised, he realized, and he liked hearing it from Yuuri's voice._

 _And the fact he liked it made him want to scream._

 _After a hot bath and redressing, thankfully not into an Academia uniform but a simple pair of blue pants and shirt, Yuuri brought over a collar, fine leather with metal chasings that spelled out Yuuri's name and dorm room, as Shun later learned._

 _"Kneel, pet," Yuuri ordered, and Shun found himself on his knees without even considering the matter. Again fear and rage roiled within him but he had no time to think about it before Yuuri fastened the collar around his neck and told him of what would happen if he ever took it off._

 _What he remembered even more clearly than that was Yuuri picking up the scarf and a familiar deck box: his own. Yuuri tilted it so Shun could see that his deck remained inside._

 _"This has been cataloged and marked. Anyone who duels you while you're using this will know your every strategy. Even if you have it back, you're no threat to us." Yuuri's smile sickened Shun even more. "Not that you ever were and not that you ever_ _ **will**_ _. But just so you know."_

 _Then he went over to one wall of the room and pressed his hand to a spot on it. A door sprang open, revealing a small wall safe._

 _"This is my vault," Yuuri said as he set the scarf and box inside and closed it up again. "I keep things in here that I don't want anyone else to have." He gave Shun a smug look. "Unfortunately you're too big to fit in here. But everything else you treasure belongs to me, and I'll keep them in here. Just like I'm keeping you in here as well."_

Shun stood in front of that spot now and stared, trying to remember everything about that moment. He hadn't seen Yuuri going there very often, and he'd not been in the best shape mentally when he saw Yuuri do it that first time. But the harder he tried, the more he could remember.

 _He just touched it. There wasn't a combination. So it would probably be a scanner of some kind, to identify Yuuri._

He put his hand on the wall, trying to find just that spot. He couldn't be at all certain that he'd find the right one or that it would respond to him if he did. Just because he could get in here didn't mean that he had full access to everything.

A hand that wasn't his own slid up next to him and rested on a place he'd passed over. Shun froze in his tracks as Yuuri's far too familiar voice spoke.

"Welcome home, pet."

 **To Be Continued**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Word Count:** 2,603|| **Story Word Count:** 17,672|| **Chapter Count:** 7/8

* * *

Yuuri wasn't as tall as Shun was. He didn't need to be, in order to have the mastery that he did over his pet. He rested his other hand on Kurosaki's back and slammed him forward, knocking his head against the wall, then grabbed him by the back of his collar and threw him onto the floor, stepping on him to keep him in place, then tugging that new duel disk off of his pet's arm. He didn't know where Kurosaki got that from but he didn't need it now.

He stared down at his possession, grinding his foot into Shun's stomach, eyes bright with delight at seeing Kurosaki twitch around in pain.

The pain had only begun. Kurosaki had a great deal to answer for, in Yuuri's opinion.

"You thought to sneak in here and take back your deck, didn't you?" Yuuri purred, leaning forward. His relative slimness didn't matter, not when he knew just where to put pressure to make the pain even worse. He didn't wait for an answer. "You should know, my pet, that Dennis has already gone to alert security. The traitor Tenjoin will be arrested."

He leaned a bit closer, breath ghosting across Kurosaki's ear. "I might even ask if I can card her myself, for trying to assist you in escaping me."

Kurosaki jerked upward, slamming one arm toward Yuuri, who lazily leaned back and grabbed hold of the offending appendage, slamming it back down. He judged his own strength very well: bruised, not broken.

Not yet. But if his pet kept on trying to resist him, then he would escalate the punishment.

"I told you that you couldn't escape from me. Why did you try to prove me wrong?" He tsked, pressing Kurosaki's arm harder down to the ground. "You could be _happy_ here with me if you stopped trying to run away. You _belong_ to me. I give you everything you could want and you still are such a disobedient _pet_."

On that last word he pulled Kurosaki's arm up and slammed it down even harder than before. Still not broken, not yet. But he heard a tiny whisper of pain and that pleased him.

"Answer me, pet," Yuuri warned. "I don't like being ignored, especially not by my own property."

Kurosaki's indrawn breath was shaky, but defiant. "Because..I… am _not your pet_."

Yuuri twisted Kurosaki's arm upward and behind him. If he fought too hard now, he'd break his own arm, and he knew it.

"You eat from my hands," Yuuri pointed out. "You sleep where I allow you to sleep. You do exactly as I tell you to do. You wear my collar – and it looks good on you, might I add."

He liked the grumble of rage but kept on talking. "You only think that you're not my pet because you refuse to let yourself accept it. Your 'pride' is too much for you to understand your place in the world."

For a few moments, everything remained deadly silent. Then Yuuri spoke again. "I will break that pride of yours. I thought I'd done a good enough job before but clearly I need to give you some special attention."

A long, low chuckle echoed faintly around the room. "How fortunate for us that I know exactly how to break you."

Kurosaki shook his head, trying his miserable best to get away. Yuuri kept him under control. "You can't."

"You really should know better," Yuuri murmured, lifting his free hand. "That's nothing but a challenge to me. And I don't think I've ever lost a challenge in my life."

He snapped his fingers. For a few seconds, nothing happened – or seemed to – until a strange sound came from the garden room. At least strange to Kurosaki; Yuuri knew who he'd called.

Another of his plants, in much better condition than the hunter plant, dropped down in front of Kurosaki. It was only big enough to come up to Yuuri's knee, squat and green and slightly bulbous, and had a half dozen vines writhing from the deep blue flowers at the center. Each vine ended with a long leaf about the span of an adult person's hand.

Kurosaki jerked his head away but with Yuuri on his back, there wasn't much that he could do or anywhere he could go. Yuuri patted his little toy on the head – the plant, not Kurosaki – and indicated the struggling former rebel.

"Give him a nice whiff of you, my dear," Yuuri ordered. The plant obediently reached out to wrap one of those leaves around Kurosaki's mouth, preventing him from making noise _and_ from breathing anywhere but his nose. One of the flowers rose upward and bent toward Kurosaki, a fine dusting of golden pollen bursting from the center.

Unable to avoid breathing it in without risking suffocation, Kurosaki could not get away from this. Yuuri stroked the back of his pet's neck slowly and whispered what he had in mind.

"I will break you. You will enjoy it. And you will enjoy being punished for your attempted escape as well. But you'll find out all of that when you wake up. And if you're a very good boy from now on, I might even let you attend when I card the traitor."

Kurosaki snarled, or tried to, but the pollen's effect sapped his strength away, until he lay on the floor, golden eyes closed, sound asleep.

Yuuri chuckled softly at the sight of his pet so deeply asleep. Taking him back hadn't taken any real effort at all. Not that he'd expected it to. He called for more of his pet plants, larger and stronger this time, capable of hauling around someone like Kurosaki.

"Take him to my special beauty," Yuuri ordered. "I'll finish the rest of the preparations once he's a little more awake to appreciate them."

The plants at once started dragging Kurosaki away. Once they were out of sight, Yuuri turned toward the open vault. He hadn't had to open it, but doing so distracted Kurosaki for those first vital moments. He clearly hadn't properly looked inside of it, and that also followed Yuuri's plan. If he had seen what was in there, he would've been in too much fury to realize how trapped he was.

But now Yuuri pulled out Kurosaki's Raid Raptors deck and the red scarf from an inner pocket of his jacket, and set the deck back within the vault. He started to do the same with the scarf before he stopped and gave it another look.

 _My pet refused to let me destroy this. It's important to him._

A slow, wicked smirk – as if Yuuri had any other kind – slid over his features. He folded the scarf up again and put it in his jacket. This could be far more useful than he'd ever thought it would be.

By now his pet plants would have Kurosaki where he wanted him to be. He'd considered this level of training before, but not wanted to move toward it too quickly. Perhaps also, some of him wished for his pet to submit to him willingly, even eagerly, aware of who his master was and desirous to please him.

Oh, well. This would be just as much fun as having it happen that way. Perhaps even more so.

He set up a message to answer for him, allowing only Dennis to be able to get through to him. He looked forward to finding out that any and all traitors to the Academia and the Professor awaited their proper punishment in the prison cells.

But until he got that word, he would just have to entertain himself the only way currently available.

Punishing Kurosaki Shun, and making him love every minute of it.

* * *

Asuka drew all of her confidence around herself, head held high, the moment that she heard footsteps coming toward her. At this hour it wasn't likely to be anyone but Yuuri. She put every other thought out of her mind, crafting the questions she wanted to ask that would hopefully get the information she wanted.

 _I'm sure I'm going to be sent into the field soon and that means I'm going to have the chance to take a captive if I find one I like. What would you advise?_

With that, she could lead things to a discussion of Kurosaki Ruri and find out something to tell Shun. She wanted him to find out whatever he could, given what he was risking by going into Yuuri's quarters in the first place.

Their plan depended on Yuuri answering her message and that wasn't perfect at all. It made sense that he would, but no one could truly count on Yuuri making sense in the first place. But given the twin goals of retrieving Shun's deck and finding out anything at all about his sister, there wasn't a great deal else that they could do.

A figure moved near the door and a moment passed before she understood who saw saw there.

 _Dennis Macfield._ Everyone knew who Dennis was. He made a point of showing off enough so that people knew who he was.

But what they also knew about him was that he was Yuuri's friend: the only person in all of Academia who would've actually said they _were_ friends with him.

She raised her head higher and refused to let a bit of the nervousness she couldn't help feeling show.

"Hello." She kept her tone as even as possible. Perhaps she'd get lucky and Dennis was just out on a trip instead of anything involved with Yuuri.

He smiled and it was far too much like Yuuri's own smile for her comfort. "Hello there. Are you waiting for someone?"

Her thoughts raced. If she said no, then when Yuuri showed up, she would be shown a liar and that would get them both suspicious, if they weren't already. If she said yes, then he'd want to know why she wanted to talk to Yuuri in the first place. He wasn't the most sociable person in school, after all.

Clever. Quick. She would have to be both to work through this. So she shrugged. "Yes. I wanted to ask some advice in case I'm sent off into the field soon." She didn't need to mention that she would be talking to Yuuri. He didn't need to know and perhaps he'd move on if she didn't say anything in specific.

"Ah, yes." Dennis stroked his chin and she didn't know if he were trying to look wise or just amused. With him, one could never properly tell. "You're waiting for Yuuri." He slipped his PDA out of his inner vest pocket and tapped it. "I hate to say it but he's very busy right now, so he sent me to meet with you instead. I hope that's all right."

 _If Yuuri didn't come..._ Fear laid its cold hand on the back of her neck. Asuka forged onward, hoping to find an answer that didn't mean horrors for everyone involved. "Well, I wanted to talk to him because he has experience in what I wanted to talk about."

"Is that so?" Dennis lounged against the wall, tucking his PDA out of sight, a grin on his lips that did nothing to soothe her. "What would that be?"

Asuka gave him a cautious look before she answered. "I wanted to know his opinion on taking a prisoner."

"Really, now." The corners of Dennis's lips turned upward. "You know he's not the only one to have done that."

"I know. But most of the others aren't anything like Kurosaki Shun." That wasn't a lie. Asuka didn't like lying; her parents had always advised against it when she was growing up. But living in Academia, she'd learned to parse her words so that she didn't lie but didn't tell the ones she spoke to everything as well.

Dennis made a sort of noise that she guessed was meant to be acknowledgment. "Did you hear? He's recaptured his pet."

That cold hand of fear tightened its grip around her. "No, I hadn't heard. When was that? I saw his signs up earlier today. Did those help?"

"I'm not really sure," Dennis admitted with a quick shrug. "But Kurosaki's going to regret ever trying to run away. Yuuri's furious at him." He leaned forward, eyes gleaming bright. "It won't be long before Kurosaki is spilling his guts about anyone who tried to help him get away, and Yuuri will have them all arrested and carded."

Asuka hoped he didn't notice the way she tensed. "Of course." She wanted to believe that Dennis was lying. She _wanted_ him to be lying. At least about Kurosaki having been captured again; she didn't doubt for a moment that if he were, Yuuri would do everything Dennis hinted at and more.

Dennis pushed himself off of the door and strolled over to her, a friendly smile visible. "So I would think, if anyone knew anything at all, they'd be wise to confess everything and _maybe_ the Professor would consider being lenient on them." He shook his head as if anything else would be a huge tragedy. "What do you think?"

Asuka's heart beat faster. She kept her voice calm, or at least thought she did. Hoped she did.

"I think that if Yuuri doesn't have time to talk to me, he should've let me know." She tapped her own PDA. "I have things I need to do and if I can't talk to him tonight, then I need to go do them."

Would it be worth it to try to get into Yuuri's dorm? Would it even be _possible_? She'd be on her own. Even if Kurosaki were in there, he'd not be in a condition where he could help her.

Another smile, just as friendly and twice as chilling as the first one, hovered around Dennis's lips. "Really? If you could make time to talk to him, then can't you make time to talk to me? At least another few minutes."

He wanted her to stay here. With everything else, Asuka decided this meant she should, under no circumstances, stay anywhere near Dennis.

In fact, it had come time to leave Academia altogether. She had her duel disk and her deck and that was all she really needed to take with her. She hoped that her friend had managed to get out of there safely.

Now she also hoped that _she_ could get out of there safely, and that Kurosaki could somehow manage it as well. He did still have that duel disk that Akane had given to him at their meeting. That could help, perhaps.

She resigned herself to probably not knowing, now or ever, as she took a step away from Dennis. She started to tell him she had to leave now, when the brisk hitting of boots on the floors echoed from far too close.

"I really think you should just sit here and come up with a proper explanation for trying to help Kurosaki Shun escape," Dennis said, voice as smooth and slick as a snake. "You really can't _imagine_ how upset Yuuri was. But you won't have to. you'll see it for yourself."

Asuka didn't bother with any last words. Instead, she turned on one heel and darted down the hallway, hearing the far too loud footsteps that could only come from campus security, with the single mission of finding her and turning her into a card.

But only if they could find her and catch her. And Tenjoin Asuka wasn't caught as easily as that.

 **To Be Continued**

 **Notes:** Well, we're almost to the end here. I hope that you've liked how things have gone so far. What did you think of the beginning of Yuuri's punishment of Shun? That's only the beginning, you know. Even with one more chapter, there's more to come. Possible sequel, of course. And of course, Asuka has to make it out in one piece. She might. She might not. Only I know. ;)

Speaking of Asuka, I finally decided on a name for her mysterious Osisis Red friend: Akane. Which means, in effect, "red". I am not always creative. I'm giving thought to an Asuka/Akane post-theoretical-canon fic that could possibly edge up to something naughty-ish. What do you think?


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Word Count:** 2,744|| **Story Word Count:** 20,416|| **Chapter Count:** 8/8  
 **Notes:** Implied unwilling nudity, references to sex-plants and what sex-plants do, Yuuri with a knife (but no blood), and implied non-con but nothing in actual detail. The details will come in the sequel.

* * *

Asuka knew better than to try to go back to her dorm room. There would be people there that she didn't want to see: more security. She didn't doubt for a second that she could take them if she had to, but she didn't want to take the chance one or more of them might try something underhanded.

Or worse, that they might call in the Tyler sisters. They weren't officially part of the security detail that dealt with traitors, but they'd been known to lend a helping hand now and then.

Asuka still believed she could take them if it became necessary, but what she wanted now was just to get out of there. She hated the very thought of doing this without Shun, after everything she'd heard about what Yuuri did to him the first time, but going to his quarters when she was already on the run wouldn't help either of them.

She would retreat and regroup, find some kind of safe place, and figure out what to do there.

Thoughts she'd kept bubbled up unfolded within her as she made her way through the twists and turns of the building.

She still didn't know everything that the Professor had in mind, but whatever it was, conquering other worlds was _wrong_.

She would need to talk to certain people. To Ryou. To Shou. To her own brother. And many others. All of them had hinted in various ways that she should probably leave Academia at some point, but she'd dismissed them all until now.

The problem with that was that any messages sent via the Academia's system could be traced and she didn't even _have_ physical addresses for most of her friends. Fubuki moved around too much for anything to get to him even if she'd had one for him.

So she would have to find another way and find it soon, because the longer she stayed anywhere without some form of protection, the sooner it would be that Academia's people would find her.

A soft voice whispered from a dark alcove and she pitched to a quick halt, eyes widening.

"Akane?" She'd expected Akane to be long gone, or as long gone as she could in the time she had left. At any rate, she shouldn't have been here still.

Akane motioned her closer. "I passed some of the security people and they were talking about having to arrest you. So I decided I couldn't leave without being sure you're all right." She stared at Asuka, hope in her eyes. "Are you ready to come with me?"

Asuka threw a look over her shoulder. The sound of booted feet grew closer. She hadn't heard it after getting away from Dennis, but now the stomp, stomp, stomp couldn't be missed. She lifted up her head and squared her shoulders.

"Let's get out of here."

She threw one more glance, somewhat more in the direction of the male dorms. _Good luck, Kurosaki. I'll come get you if I can._ But even as she and Akane moved on out, she feared she might not be able to.

But she'd try it anyway. Because no one deserved to be Yuuri's prisoner for so much as a minute, let alone forever.

* * *

Shun's head throbbed, streaks of white-hot agony twisting through it. He tried not to move, not at all sure of where he was or what was going on or why he felt like this.

 _This is worse than when we found that wine store._ That had been a miracle in and of itself, and while he'd never been too fond of wine, they hadn't had much else to drink at that point. It wasn't even a celebration, more of a mourning situation, after having lost so much.

None of them had been old enough or practiced enough in drinking to understand just how much was too much. That wasn't a mistake they made ever again.

But the headache he'd had the next day seemed like a favored memory in comparison to what he felt like now.

A hand, much more familiar than he wanted it to be, tilted his head and Shun groaned, twitching. It felt almost like Yuuto and when he opened his eyes, he thought for a moment that he did indeed see his friend there. He let himself imagine being free again…

Until his eyes cleared and his mind snapped more into focus and he could see Yuuri smirking at him.

"I'm so terribly sorry about how your head must feel. My dear little plant isn't fully refined yet."

Something of his confusion must've communicated itself to Yuuri, since he chuckled again, hand still resting on Shun's chin. His grip did tighten a bit more, though, keeping Shun firmly in place.

"It put you to sleep but you've got a horrible headache. Here. This should help."

He brought up a cup full of something that looked a lot like tea of some kind. Shun's throat ached with dryness almost in the moment that he saw it. It wouldn't be the first time he'd taken food or drink from Yuuri. He'd hoped the last meal he'd had here before his escape would've been the last.

Yuuri brought the cup up to Shun's lips. Shun realized then that something bound his arms over his head, as well as his legs being spread wide and held by something else. None of them quite felt like ropes or chains, though.

"Drink," Yuuri ordered, his voice unyielding. "Or don't, and everything will be worse for you than you already have earned."

 _How can it be worse?_ Shun didn't know. He couldn't imagine how it would be. But if it could be worse, Yuuri would know how to make it that way.

And he did need something to drink. He slowly opened his mouth and accepted the careful tilting of the cup against his lips. Yuuri made sure he only took small sips, until the cup emptied and his thirst assuaged.

Once done, he let himself relax as much as he could. Everything seemed a little strange, as if his mind was removed from what was going on. He knew how furious Yuuri was and yet he couldn't fully bring himself to care.

He let his eyes close, suspecting Yuuri would demand that he open them right away. He could never be allowed a moment to deny his presence in Yuuri's quarters, no matter how much he wanted otherwise.

He was indeed interrupted. But not in the way he'd expected.

Yuuri's lips were thin, a touch dry, and his breath a puff of warmth that sent Shun's eyes flying open. He started to twist his head, but doing so proved that there was something binding his neck as well, keeping him from harsh movements.

 _He's… kissing me?_ Shun had no idea of how to process all of this. He refused to even think about returning it, though. Clearly Yuuri had lost what bits of his sanity remained.

"This is your punishment, Kurosaki Shun," Yuuri said, so close still that Shun couldn't miss a word. "First, I'll use you in any way that I please. I know how close you and my counterpart were. He'll be mine one day too. But you first, in a way I intend to enjoy." One hand made its way down Shun's chest. "Second, we will have a bargain. Look up."

Shun wasn't in the habit of doing what Yuuri told him to do without some kind of resistance. But the idea of looking up wasn't inherently awful so he did.

His eyes widened when he saw a very familiar strip of red cloth around his wrists. He tugged a little, carefully, not wanting to break it if it really was what he thought it was.

"My scarf..."

"That's right." Yuuri agreed. "This is the bargain: my plants and I are going to use you to please ourselves for a minimum of one week. That is _our_ goal. _Your_ goal is to avoid tearing your scarf apart because of what we do to you. If you manage to avoid that for seven days in a row, then I'll set you free and return you to your dimension, with your deck and scarf." A flash of another smirk. Shun hated those so much. "I might even arrange a meeting with your sister before you go."

"If I go, she goes." Shun hadn't lost himself to the point of letting that go. Yuuri only shook his head.

"The Professor wants her to stay. I could arrange for you to stay with her, or at least get visits, if you are the good little slave I know you can be. But if you win your freedom, you _don't_ win hers." Again his hand trailed down Shun, farther with each movement. "But let me finish. If you win: if you don't tear your own scarf apart with the pleasure of what we do to you, I'll set you free. But when you lose, when you love what we do to you so much you can't help it, you'll stay with me as long as I want you to. And you will continue to please me in any way that I command. No more fighting. No more resistance. No more struggling to rebel against what being my property means. You'll also help me retrieve my counterparts: especially the one you know."

He touched his lips against Shun's again for a few moments. "Do you understand?"

He wasn't giving Shun a chance or a choice to agree. There wasn't any option here and Shun knew it. This wasn't a challenge, it was a game, a game that he refused to lose and that Yuuri must've set him up to fail anyway. The idea of submitting to Yuuri like that, of going along with what he wanted, sickened him. But he wasn't being given any way out of it, either.

"You're a little too dressed for this, really," Yuuri murmured. "How can I enjoy you when you have all of this on?"

Shun drew a breath so he could talk, leaning his head away from Yuuri. "You don't."

"But that's what I'm going to do." Yuuri reminded him, digging his fingers into Shun's shirt. "Besides, I know you hate wearing what I gave you. So I'll get rid of it. Aren't I generous?"

Shun couldn't bring himself to say anything else, because he knew quite well there wasn't anything that he could say that Yuuri wouldn't twist to please himself. If he tried to say that he didn't want the clothes, Yuuri would just point out that he was getting rid of them. If he tried to say that he didn't want them torn off by Yuuri, then he would be admitting that he wanted to wear Yuuri's handouts. He realized belatedly that Yuuri had done this on purpose: he could've done it while Shun still slept, but he saved it for now, when he could get a reaction out of him.

"I want to wear _my_ clothes!" He found himself snapping. Yuuri gave him a very amused look.

"They don't exist anymore. I had them destroyed. All you have left of that ridiculous outfit is this." He tapped one finger against the scarf binding Shun's wrists together. "And I suspect you won't have that much longer."

Shun shook his head, about to say something else, when a slim, sharp-bladed knife appeared in Yuuri's hand from somewhere. It didn't take very long for Yuuri to cut the clothes to shreds, cleaning them away carefully before he leaned back to take a very long look at Shun.

"You're not bad looking," he said in an approving tone. "But I knew that already."

"If you didn't steal Yuuto's face..." Shun growled, and Yuuri laughed.

"Oh, my silly little pet. If you want to imagine that it's Yuuto sampling your flesh, then go ahead." Yuuri leaned closer, tracing his tongue across Shun's lips. "But since surrendering to this pleasure means you give up leaving ever again… do you want to?"

Shun's heart picked up the pace, even more so as Yuuri trailed the edge of the knife down his chest. He made no cuts, but the blade's presence couldn't be denied.

Whatever it was around his neck shifted a bit, and Shun looked away from the path of the knife to try to figure out what Yuuri had done.

He'd seen plants before. He'd never seen a plant this big, at least half again as tall as he was, with far more vines than he could conveniently count. One of those rested his neck, while two more wrapped around his arms and kept them above his head. Even if he tore the scarf – and he didn't want to destroy it – the vines would remain there, keeping him there. More vines had his legs spread , with another around his waist.

"Do you like it?" Yuuri asked, still skimming Shun's body with the knife. "I grew it myself, for situations like this." He let out a small chuckle. "But I have to admit, I planned to use it on at least one counterpart first. Probably the one from Synchro. I think he'd be amusing to see tied up and protesting like this. But using it on you won't be so bad. I should get a few test runs out of the way, after all." He gave Shun a sly look. "I haven't broken anyone using this method before, either. So I may make a few mistakes. But in the end, I'm sure I'll get what I want. You're going to look beautiful on your knees for me. And anywhere else I want you."

Shun started to open his mouth yet again, but then something underneath him moved and he could feel a presence winding up his legs. This time when he tried to move his head, the vine around his neck kept him in place.

"Now, now, you don't want to spoil the surprise, do you?" Yuuri chided. "This is just a little something to get you ready for what comes next."

He made a strange sort of noise and a moment later, something else slid across Shun's legs. He struggled yet again, refusing to just let this happen without voicing some kind of protest or fighting, but nothing at all stopped whatever it was from doing what it did.

What made it worse was that there wasn't any pain. Shun couldn't shake the awareness of its presence, but it didn't _hurt_. He would've expected Yuuri to want it to hurt.

But then Yuuri kissed him again, deeper and fuller than before, and warmth Shun hadn't expected at all bubbled up within him. He groaned, wanting to move away and reject all of this, but the vines kept him right where Yuuri wanted him.

"Let's have some fun," Yuuri murmured, and Shun couldn't tell if he spoke to him or to the plant. The plant began to move a little more and Shun barely had time to grasp that Yuuri's words had probably been to it before it began to be too difficult to think for more than a few moments.

Too difficult and far, far too pleasurable.

* * *

Yuuri thoroughly enjoyed every moment of Kurosaki's punishment so far. His pet didn't even understand that his punishment had begun the moment Yuuri took him back. This was just the more visible part of it.

But this was all part of the punishment. The headache he'd known would happen. The drink to soothe the pain – and to do more. The plant that would get Shun ready for him and keep him in a state of readiness.

Yuuri didn't expect Shun to break easily. He didn't _want_ him to break easily. He wanted this to last as long as he could make it. He wanted Shun to understand that his life belonged to Yuuri now.

Once he did understand that he would understand that Yuuri could be kind to those he favored. He might even arrange for that visit with Kurosaki's sister, if the Professor would allow it. It wasn't as if either of them could escape. This would just convince Kurosaki of that once and for all.

Seven days, he'd promised. As much as he didn't want his plaything to break easily, he did hope Shun lasted a while. What fun was a toy that broke as soon as you played a little rough with it?

 **The End**

 **Notes:** I'm making the full punishment a separate story because I want to have lots and lots of room for what Yuuri does.

I've also wanted to take part in the "Yuuri has sexplants and knows how to use them" branch of things for a while. Don't be surprised if they show up again, either.

So, I hope that you enjoyed this.

 **Editing Notes:** 1/6/17: On rereading I discovered some internal errors (i.e., the terms of Shun's release switched in the middle). So I edited and fixed that and threw in a Yuugo reference and now everything is good.


End file.
